Random Awesomeness (part 2019.13)

• PC Holy Grail Alert! When you find a card with a piece of your childhood inside it! [TanManBaseballFan.com]
• 1987 All Star Game Honorary Captains: Catfish Hunter & Billy Williams [Cards That Never Were]
• Respect for ’74 [Night Owl Cards]
• Vintage Base Ball [n j w v]
• The 80 Greatest Movies of the ’80s [Consequence of Sound]
• very rare 35mm scan of the original teaser trailer for THE GOONIES [Annapurna Pictures on Twitter]
• Literary Book Title Generator [Writers Write]

Purchase the soundtrack for Yesterday
featuring a bunch of Beatles songs performed by Himesh Patel!
 

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Random Awesomeness (part 2019.11)

• A Junior for All Seasons Part 1: the Kid on the Topps Designs of the 50’s [The Junior Junkie] (JT sez: This is an old post, but Topps’ recent use of Griffey in The Living Set brought it back to my mind.)
• 2019 Chachi #45 Jay Bruce [The Phillies Room]
• 1989 All-Star Ballot [From a 1980s Baseball Card Collector]
• He-wok and skel-wok figures [fortheloveofoldtoys on etsy]
• The Patents Behind Toy Story’s Beloved Characters [Smithsonian.com]
• Optimus Prime Gets a Cool Transformers/Ghostbusters Mashup Action Figure For SDCC [GeekTyrant] (JT sez: Cool? Definitely. $150 cool? Not so much.)
• 5 Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block [A Writer’s Path]

Purchase BCCIV by the Black Country Communion!
 

30 Years Ago Today: Dead Poets Society arrives in theaters

“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”

I am certain I did not see Dead Poets Society when it first arrived in theaters in 1989; I probably didn’t see it until more than two years later when I could drive to Blockbuster and rent it on VHS. Maybe I saw an “edited for television” version at some point before then. One thing I can tell you: when I did see Dead Poets Society, the movie had a major impact on me.

I have always been in love with writing. I often put it off and procrastinate and beat myself up for my lack of skills, but I cannot resist the pull of putting words to the page. The words of John Keating, portrayed by the legendary Robin Williams, inspired me as a teenager. I wanted to seize the day. I needed to make my life extraordinary.

Somewhere along the line, though, “real life” got in the way. I gave up on dreams until I stopped dreaming. I walked away from opportunities because of fear of failure and lack of self-confidence. I discouraged myself, despite the encouragement of others all around me.

Now, three decades later, I want to seize the day; I still feel the need to make my life extraordinary. And I still have no idea how to do that.

Random Awesomeness (part 2019.10)

• Scaring Your Readers 101: 8 Tips for Writing a Great Horror Story [Writers Write]
• The Guilty Pleasures of Procrastination [Fiction University]
• Unearthed Photos: Van Halen 1979 Record Store Signing at Peaches Records & Tapes [Van Halen News Desk]
• The year was #1987 [PAINTinMANning on Twitter]
• Reds legend Eric Davis talks Tony Gwynn, pulls off a great trade [Old Baseball Cards by Yahoo! Sports on YouTube]
• Disney Plus: Every show and movie that will (or may be) available to stream [CNET]
• Custom Cards: The Next Generation [The Shlabotnik Report]

What I’m Reading Right Now: Supermarket by Bobby Hall.
 

Pre-order Down To The River by the Allman Betts Band!
 

Random Awesomeness (part 2019.7)

• 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Event Schedule [1869reds.com]
• Celebrating Cincinnati Baseball: 150 Years of the Cincinnati Reds [The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County]
• The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2019 [The Write Life]
• Lego haunted house MOC 🎃👻🦇 [kreimkouk’s YouTube]
• Nick Senzel Rookie Card Primer [Beckett]
• Musical Chairs [Night Owl Cards]
• #129T – Earl Weaver [1985 Topps] (JT sez: It makes me sad that the 1985 Topps blog is almost finished. The first card was posted way back in 2012, and it has been great following along with Greg as he wrote about every card in the entire set and now the Traded series. Only three more cards to go!)

What I’m Reading Right Now: The Message of Psalms 73-150 by Michael Wilcock.
 

Purchase Living The Dream by Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators!
 

Random Awesomeness (part 2019.4)

• Boss Hogg Served in the Korean War as a Counterintelligence Officer & Could Speak 5 Languages [War History Online]
• A Tale Of Two Trophies [The Topps Archives]
• Don’t think Trice, it’s alright and The power of the eraser [SABR’s Baseball Cards Committee]
• 2019 WAR Update [Sports Reference]
• Changing the World Through Love: What I Noticed When I Read 1, 2, 3 John [Radically Christian]
• Toy Story 4 finally gets a full-length trailer, and my heart already hurts [Consequence of Sound]
• 10 Dialogue Errors Writers Should Avoid [Writers Write]

What I’m Reading Right Now: Firefight: The Reckoners, Book Two by Brandon Sanderson.

Purchase the debut album from The End Machine!
(The End Machine features classic-era Dokken members George Lynch, Jeff Pilson, and Mick Brown, with current Warrant vocalist Robert Mason behind the microphone.)

Random Awesomeness (part 2019.3)

• Stuck With Your Story? Why You Keep Hitting Walls and Dead Ends in Your Writing. [A Writer’s Path]
• Cards in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings [Baseball Card Breakdown]
• Tracii Guns And Michael Sweet Join Forces In New ‘Metal’ Project Sunbomb [Blabbermouth]
• Report: Marvel’s Plans for Disney+ Could Include an Animated Take on Its Classic What If? Comics [io9]
• The Difference Between Archetypes, Tropes, and Clichés [Janice Hardy’s Fiction University]
• Decision Fatigue. Writer’s Block. Procrastination. Is There a Link? [Anne R. Allen’s Blog…with Ruth Harris]
• How Writing 3 Pages a Day Can Change Your Productivity [Almost an Author]

What I’m Reading Right Now: Firefight: The Reckoners, Book Two by Brandon Sanderson.

Purchase the self-titled Black Robot album!

Random Awesomeness (part 2019.2)

• Stan Lee’s Captain Marvel cameo raises a lot of questions [AV News]
• There’s Only One Surviving Blockbuster Left on Planet Earth [Gizmodo]
• More 1979 Alt-Topps [Cards That Never Were]
• I Love The 80’s – Donruss [Dub Mentality]
• Did someone say “contest”? [Baseball Card Breakdown] (JT sez: The Breakdown’s animated baseball card gifs are always spectacular.)
• NaNoWriMo 2018 Bonus Episode, with Mercedes Lackey [Writing Excuses] (JT sez: I know this is an old episode, but it is a really good discussion of writer’s block.)
• Quit Trying to Write [Kill Zone]

What I’m Reading Right Now: Steelheart: The Reckoners, Book One by Brandon Sanderson.

Purchase the new Black Keys single “Lo Hi” here.

Writing resources: “Write a Novel” course by Crawford Kilian, and the “Writing Excuses” podcast

I have saved on my jump drive several short stories and a few drafts of a few chapters of a novel that I’ve been playing around with for 25 years. 25 years. I’m probably never going to get it done, but I can’t bring myself to delete these drafts. I’m not very good at following through with these things, even though I claim to love writing. Last year, I started off strong in a short story challenge. Write 12 short stories in 12 months, and for the first five months I nailed it. I’m not sure what happened in June. Or July. I’m sure I forgot about it by August. I think a couple of those stories are pretty good, and a couple of them are pretty bad. The bottom line, though, is I didn’t stick with it all year.

I buy books about writing, and for a while I put some of their guidance to work. I used to listen to the Writing Excuses podcast in my car, and get pumped up…until I sit down at the computer. Then I get distracted by Facebook or baseball cards or Twitter or my “real” job. I eventually gave up on listening to the podcast, as I never actually put any of the advice into practice.

Bottom line: I have a problem with motivation.

I want to write, but I just don’t do it. I need to change this. I need to set aside some time to write, to really focus on my novel idea, because until I get this two-and-a-half decade idea down on paper, I’ll never move on from it. It will always be a weight around my neck, a burden that prevents me from getting on with other ideas.

I don’t know if it will help, but I discovered a new resource by Crawford Kilian tonight. Kilian used to blog at “Writing Fiction” frequently, but like most blogs, the new posts started to tail off. A new post appears every once in a while, but it’s just not the same. However, early last year, he did offer a free resource: “Write a Novel,” an 18-lesson course for aspiring writers. While I don’t have the time to sit down and start it right away, I plan to go through the course in the coming months.

I also plan to start listening to the Writing Excuses podcast again. They have some great ideas. Who knows, maybe 2019 will finally be the year my characters come to life on the page they way they live in my mind.

Edgar Allan Poe wantlist

I still haven’t obtained any Edgar Allan Poe cards, but Night Owl’s post today made me aware of two more from 2010 A&G. If I’m going to try to get these, I suppose I need a wantlist, no? So here it is:

• 1952 Topps “Look ‘n See” #79
• 1992 Starline Americana #140
• 2009 Topps American Heritage #4
• 2009 Topps Mayo “Celebrated Citizens” #CC11
• 2010 Allen & Ginter “World’s Wordsmiths”
• 2011 Allen & Ginter “World’s Most Mysterious Figures”: The Poe Toaster #WMF2
• 2011 Goodwin Champions #183
• 2011 Obak “Princeton Brothers” #62
• 2012 Golden Age #1
• 2013 Garbage Pail Kids “Adam Bombing” #8

There is also a pretty cool Bicycle playing card deck that I may try to add to my currently non-existent collection at some point.